A 60 Pound Pit Bull Named Roxy Changes A Family’s Life Forever

Advertisement

There’s no question that therapy animals have a powerful propensity for healing in the humans they’re partnered with, but to watch a mother recall the transformation of her son with his pit bull rescue is enough to bring tears to your eyes.

Joey’s mother Amanda had a pretty good idea that Joey was developing differently than other children by the age of 3. He wasn’t affectionate with her in the way a mother might expect her child to be, and by age 7, Joey was diagnosed with high-functioning Asperger syndrome. “He’s always wanted to be alone, he’s never wanted to have people around him. He’s always done everything better by himself,” she says.

Joey — now a teen — says that he asked his mother for a dog after he had difficulty making friends. Amanda stumbled across a Facebook post for a rescue center with a dog in need of a home. She recalls that when Joey met Roxy, a 60-pound pit bull, it was love at first sight. “It was beautiful just to watch him with her — watching him being able to connect with somebody,” she says.

Tearfully, Amanda reminds us that pit bull stigmas prevented her from thinking that Roxy would have made a good companion for her son. Now, she hopes to spread the story of their mutual rescue in hopes of changing minds about the misinformation surrounding the breed.